Like Fire and Ice
by Priestess Allestra
Summary: After a harmless mall trip and lunch date with all their friends goes wrong, Sayaka places herself in an awkward situation with her roommate, Kyoko. KyoSaya fluff, maybe eventual Homura/Madoka. Young adult AU in which the Magical Girls lead ordinary lives as friends and go through life. Takes place during their early college years. Their ages are collectively 18/19 years old.
1. The Great Pizza Debacle

The Great Pizza Debacle

"So do you actually know what you're doing, or no?" she asked, a strawberry pocky stick bouncing between her lips with every syllable.

Sayaka stopped walking. Her hands tightened around the handles of the shopping cart basket as they walked through the supermarket foyer.

_No, s_he thought._ No, __but if I had made the right decision __last weekend __instead of going with my gut instinct..._

"O-Of course! Everyone knows how to make pizza! We've made it plenty of times before."

"No, we've made pre-made, frozen pizzas before. We've never made it from scratch like you're insisting on doing."

_Nothing gets past you._

_ "_Well yeah, but that's because we've been... Pressed for time. It takes too long to make a pizza from scratch, and so I just haven't had the time to make one with you."

Kyoko turned to face her. Sayaka was sure to notice how her red hair framed her face perfectly in the light She arched an eyebrow at Sayaka, and a slight grin crept across Kyoko's lips before turning back around, apparently satisfied with the answer.

"Well, if you say so. I swear, this shit better come out fantastic or we'll go back to eating canned meat and tuna."

Sayaka cringed. The two of them had been helping each other keep a strict budget, and that included minimizing food costs by spending as little as possible (the two were only allowed only a small amount of money to splurge on their favorite foods: Sayaka on her favorite summer produce, and Kyoko on her sweets). Subsequently, they ate either canned meat or tuna so much that they managed to find over fifteen different ways to prepare it. Potted meat and eggs was the only dish that didn't slightly churn Sayaka's stomach just thinking about. The fact that they were willing to spend valuable food money on this pizza endeavor meant a lot; Sayaka literally couldn't afford to disappoint.

Kyoko continued strolling through the supermarket entrance in front of her, hands in her jacket pockets. Sayaka hesitated for a moment, but began pushing the basket again to continue following her friend. As Sayaka walked through the entrance she was struck by a cold blast of air blowing from the air conditioner, and an equally cold realization of her own foolishness.

_Why, _she thought. _Why did we have to stop at that stupid pizzeria?_

Every week their group of friends got together to hang out, just like the days back at Mitakihara. Madoka, Mami, and Homura met up with them to have fun and do all sorts of activities that friends do: they went to the park, watched movies, played board games, and did whatever else they felt like. Last weekend they happened to go to the mall to find Mami a new dress for the wedding of one of her childhood friends that would happen later that week. After an hour or two of Mami not being able to find "the right style," they decided to split a pizza at the food court; shopping was tiring work, after all.

"Okay, but really, who doesn't like stuffed crust?" Sayaka mused only somewhat bitterly as the five of them headed towards a circular table in the middle of the food court and sat.

"Someone who you know is lactose intolerant," Homura answered from across the table, jaded as ever. "Besides, it was my turn to choose the food. Consider yourself lucky that I'm feeling well enough to eat even a small amount of cheese right now." Madoka leaned over and placed her hand on Homura's lap.

"Now, Homura, Sayaka didn't mean that in a mean way. She just really likes cheesy bread. We've been best friends since middle school; she liked it so much even then that she ordered two extra helpings each time they served it!"

Sayaka watched as Homura looked down at the box of pizza in front of them all. She seemed completely unphased by the comment, but a word from Madoka clearly made her less bellicose. Homura opened the box and started working on her own slice; the rest of the girls' mouths watered as the fresh smell of pizza seeped out of the box.

Mami followed Homura's lead by picking up a slice of her own and placing it in front of her. "I'm just glad that we didn't have the topping debate again. We would have starved before we heard the end of it this time."

Mami had been the hungriest on the day in question, and subsequently fought the hardest to have everyone order her favorite: spinach alfredo pizza. With a blush that conveyed a sense of embarrassment and guilt hiding just below the surface at having acted so uncouth in front of her friends, Mami handed out paper plates to the others and placed a hot, gooey piece of deliciousness upon each of them as an act of contrition. Sayaka and Kyoko shared a glance. Mami had only gotten so embroiled because the two of them _started_ the fight, and over petty reasons.

Sayaka and Kyoko had become roommates only two weeks before the huge pizza debacle. On that day, Sayaka had finally gotten fed up with Kyoko about her bad habit of leaving candy wrappers everywhere. Sayaka was always the one who ended up picking them up even though she told Kyoko to clean up after herself multiple times. When she finally got fed up with it enough, Sayaka collected all the wrappers she could find and dumped them into Kyoko's bedroom. Kyoko didn't take too kindly to that, and made it a point to disagree with everything Sakura said that day in spite. They would later laugh about it in hindsight because they were sure that the day would go down in the books as "their first fight".

Kyoko crunched down on her last bit of pocky, a sly, knowing smile appearing in its place just before their moment was ended by Madoka's cheery interjection.  
"Yeah," Madoka squealed, "we would have all gone home hungry if we hadn't settled on pepperoni!"

Madoka was actually the one who suggested pepperoni as the topping. Since it was probably the only topping nobody hated, the group quieted down and settled for it. Everyone but Madoka enjoyed their begrudgingly-picked pepperoni; she picked hers off and set them on the side of her plate, not wanting to let her vegetarian tastes impact her meat-loving friends' meal. In the interest of avoiding another fight, they all silently settled on pepperoni again this time, save for Sayaka's failed insistence on stuffed crust.

"How is it none of you idiots know how to actually make pizza? That way we could have just made a big one with all of our favorite toppings portioned out," she took a bite of her pizza and chewed a couple of times before continuing, her mouth unapologetically full of food. "Seriously, it's not that hard." She swallowed and washed it down with food-court cherry slush. Sayaka looked down at her own slice of pizza, hoping hoping her friends wouldn't notice her now-rosy cheeks. She had a habit of blushing when Kyoko talked with her mouth full, and she wasn't sure why.

"Isn't that pretty time consuming? Some pizza places make it look easy, but I'm sure it's a lot more work than you make it seem like," Mami remarked, stirring her glass of tea.

"Yeah, Kyoko! Those guys work hard to make us such good food! It's not fair to undermine them like that," Madoka chimed in with her usual vigor.

Homura looked up from the pizza slice of hers she was currently taking the pepperonis off of to nod in Kyoko and Sayaka's direction. She then went back to her task, placing all of her pepperonis on the side of her plate.

Kyoko sent an awkward side glance at Sayaka. As it turned out, all the other girls had disapproved of Kyoko's observation in a clockwise pattern and Sayaka, logically speaking, was next. Sayaka looked around the table at all her friends. She was suddenly aware that all of their eyes were on her.

"I... I don't think..."

But in that moment she saw something in Kyoko's eyes she rarely ever saw from this adamantly brave and confident girl. _Something._ But what was it? Betrayal? Sadness? Embarrassment? Sayaka resolved to never see such a fleeting emotion in those eyes again, even over something as seemingly insignificant as this. Because that's what friends do, right?

"...I mean yeah, look at him toss that dough. It's really not that hard once you get the hang of it," she said, glancing back at Kyoko.

For a moment, her face looked soft. Softer than Sayaka had ever seen from this tough, jaded girl. But then just as quickly as it appeared, it vanished with one of Kyoko's signature scoffs. Kyoko leaned back in her chair, a satisfied grin now firmly planted on her face. She remained silent, continuing on her own slice of pizza as the others responded.

"Wow, Sayaka, you've tossed pizza dough before? I didn't think you knew so much about cooking. Do you have baking skills you've hidden from us?" Mami marveled.

"What? N-no, I didn't sa-"

"Sayaka, you're the best! You have so many interests! Music, sports, and now baking too," Madoka observed.

"I-I mean that's not what I-"

But a silent jeer from Kyoko was all it took too silence her misgivings about her friends' misconceptions.

"... I mean yeah, my dad taught me how to make pizza when I was just a little girl. Anyone could do it with just a little practice. In fact, I'm sure I could whip one up now and it would still taste better than the one we got today."

She regretted those words as soon as she said them. Madoka's face lit up across the table with a combination of awe and excitement.

"Really? Well how about next week then? Aren't we all free this time next week? I'd like to be able to see you guys again, and I would love to hear about how that dress went over at the wedding Mami is going to!"

Madoka's face showed sheer jubilation, and Sayaka knew just as well as everyone else at the table that it was too hard to talk Madoka out of doing something she really wanted without a good reason. Everyone agreed.

"Good then, it's a date. I want extra cheese on my slices! And everyone else can have their favorite toppings too- Oh, Homura, I thought you liked pepperoni. I could have sworn you enjoyed it last week!"

Everyone turned to Homura, who was eating her now meatless slice of pizza after having picked off all the slices of pepperoni. Homura offered only her trademark "hmph," and went back to eating.

"Well, I guess tastes change. Maybe one day the two of us can go to this really nice vegetarian place I know. Hitomi actually showed it to me a few weeks ago. I guess I'll be paying it forward by going with another one of my best friends, right?"

Homura remained stoic and kept eating, eyes intently fixed on her pizza. Mami was the one who broke the silence.

"Well then, Sayaka, I don't suppose you and Kyoko would mind hosting us at your place next weekend, right? We still need to see this new apartment unit you guys live in, after all."

Sayaka looked at Kyoko, who was still leaning dangerously far back in her chair. Kyoko winked at her, and suddenly Sayaka was filled with all of the confidence she needed.

"A-absolutely! You guys are always welcome at our place. It's a little messy though, so we'll just need to clean up a bit. It's bad, I have this terrible habit of leaving my candy wrappers all over the place."

Thank you for reading! This is my first fic, so please, any and all comments/criticism/praise is welcome! ^^


	2. Mami Knows Best

Like Fire and Ice

Chapter Two

Mami Knows Best

The two of them shuffled down the walkway, the sounds of the supermarket ringing about them: people chattered, cash registers beeped, and children laughed. Funny, how could the world around her feel so carefree while there was a storm brewing in Sayaka's mind?

Just a week earlier, a very awkward interaction was shared between Sayaka, Kyoko, and all their friends at the food court in the mall. The bottom line was: Sayaka was forced through her own sense of useless pride and chivalry to splurge on making pizza for Kyoko and all their friends while on a tight budget. There was another problem with that, however...

She'd never made a pizza from scratch in her entire life.

Walking through the supermarket, she tried her best to recall all she had learned while studying a recipe last night.

_Okay... So I guess the firs__t__ thing we need is flour for the dough, _she thought._ But the fresh produce is up front, so I suppose it __only__ makes sense to stop there first?_

She almost passed up the entrance to the produce section. With a turn that was clearly too sharp to look as if she knew where she was going, she maneuvered her cart into the area. Kyoko pivoted on the heels of her feet behind Sayaka and followed suit.

"Whoa, there. You in some kind of friggin' hurry or what? We have all day to do this, Saya-chan, get it together."

Normally the use of her affectionate nickname "Saya-chan" would have sent her stomach into some sort of light flurry, but today it felt like a pound of lead in her gut.

"Oh... Right. Sorry. I guess I just got ahead of myself and thought I needed to get something from the back first, haha."

Kyoko wasn't normally very astute at recognizing Sayaka's distress when she tried to hide it, but this time was different. Kyoko reached into her pocket and pulled out a package of chewing gum, unwrapped a stick, and popped it into her mouth. She then offered some to Sayaka with an outstretched hand.

"Want one? People say it helps with stress. I'm not sure if I believe all that bullshit, but I guess someone in your position could use all the help she can get."

Sayaka was taken aback.

_What? __D__oes she know? __Did Mami let something slip? Maybe__if I __just play dumb..._

"What do you mean, 'under the circumstances?' Nothing has changed recently. Although now that you mention it, looking at all these groceries is making me a bit hungry, but otherwise I couldn't feel better if I tried! Haha."

Sayaka gripped the shopping cart just a little bit tighter and twiddled her thumbs. _Did Mami tell her?... _In an attempt to play off the moment, she picked up a fresh tomato almost as red as her cheeks from the stand next to her. With a forced nod, she deemed the tomato sufficient and placed it and three others into the shopping cart. With her nerves on end, she continued walking down the aisle. Kyoko closed the package of gum and followed her.

"You're really bad at lying, Saya-chan. I could tell that you've been acting weird about this ever since last week, and if you think I'm stupid enough to not know why then you must not know me all that well."

_So she does know._

Sayaka's heart just about stopped. The embarrassment was almost too much to handle, but she couldn't lose it here in a public place, especially in front of _her._

She turned around from her shopping cart to face her friend.

"You... You know?" she gingerly asked. Her heart felt like a ton of bricks in her chest, and she looked down in embarrassment and shame. Perhaps she could finally come clean about this entire situation she found herself in.

"Well no shit," Kyoko pointedly responded, smacking her gum. "Everyone knows Mami and Madoka-chan have really picky tastes. They would tell you they liked this pizza even if it was the worst shit on the planet. Even I might be a little nervous about letting them down if I'd talked this pizza up as much as you have."

_Oh._

This changed things. She looked back up at her roommate, her best friend. Suddenly she could look her in the eyes again. The urge to tell Kyoko the truth was overwhelming, and Sayaka struggled to find the right words.

"There's something I need to say," she stated. "Kyo-chan, I think..."

But before she could finish, the events of the day before sprung into her mind in vivid detail. Her words were lost as she reminisced.

It was a brisk spring afternoon, and her college campus was alive with the hustle and bustle of students heading to and from classes, coupled with the sweet scent of spring flowers tingling in the air. In her first break of the day, Sayaka found herself running across campus to get to the library. She only had two hours until her next class; that was more than enough time to learn a pizza recipe, right?

_Dammit, _she thought. _Why did I have to wait until the day before to look all this up?_

She shuffled passed people, and offered only a brief, halfhearted apology to a passerby as she caused them to drop some books and supplies they were carrying.

As much as she would have liked to stop and help, this was more important.

Arriving at the library, she quickly scaled the stairs and arrived at the second floor.

_Dewey decimal number 640. 640. 640._

She had asked a librarian the night before where she might find cookbooks. She had committed the number to memory, but repeating the number over and over helped her keep her mind on the task at hand. Scurrying through the library aisle, she finally found the shelf she was looking for and began taking off every cookbook on the shelf that might could possibly mention pizza. After sitting on the floor and making herself comfortable, she looked at the stack of books she had assembled. Sitting down, the stack was _taller than her_.

_Well, time to get to work..._

The next hour flew by in a blur. Almost half of the cookbooks she found didn't have a single pizza recipe in them, and those that did were old and worn, and had markings written on the pages by all the people who had used the book before: suggestions such as "use two cups of flour, not 2½!" and "fresh tomatoes only—never use processed ones," littered the pages, rendering most of the original text almost unreadable. She was losing hope when she heard a familiar voice.

"Sayaka-chan? Is that you?"

Sayaka looked up quickly, broken from her trance at the mention of her name. Standing across the aisle from her and wearing a flowery sundress was her friend, Mami Tomoe. Mami gingerly walked towards her, taking care to step around all of the books Sayaka had scattered about.

"Oh, Mami-chan. I'm sorry, I guess I didn't see you there. What brings you here?"

Mami laughed softly to herself, taking in the scene before her.

"Oh, I was just studying for an upcoming test next week. Although it looks like you studied harder than I ever have; it looks like a hurricane passed through here!"

Sayaka took in the area around her: she really had made a mess of the place. She gathered up some of the books she'd already poured through and deemed useless and set them to the side. Her work space still had no semblance of order, however.

"Yeah... Sorry about that. Just stressing out over—well I guess you could call it a test of sorts."

Mami bent down to pick up one of the books and examine it.

"'_Italian Living: 365 Days of __Classic __Recipes,' _Sayaka-chan, are these all cookbooks?"

_Oh, crap._

While stressing over the upcoming day, she had completely forgotten that the ostensible reason for this pizza endeavor was to make a nice meal for her friends—not to impress Kyoko as she had actually intended. Before Sayaka could gather her thoughts, Mami continued.

"Sayaka-chan... You aren't looking up pizza recipes for tomorrow, are you? I thought you said you had been doing this since you were a kid."

Sayaka sighed. She reached out for one of the bookshelves and used it to help herself to her feet. Dusting herself off, she looked Mami in the eyes. Being a year older than them, Mami had always been a sort of role-model for Sayaka and Madoka. Across the years Mami had helped them sort out all sorts of problems: Sayaka sought out her advice for the breakup between herself and Kyousuke, the great Madoka-Sayaka feud of their senior year of high school, and even various problems within her home. No matter what the problem was, Mami was there to help her out with sound advice and a cup of tea whenever you needed it. Surely she could help with this too, right?

"Mami-chan, Do you think you could help me pick up these books? I think we should have a talk..."

So they cleaned up Sayaka's mess and headed down to the campus coffee shop. Mami ordered them a pot of chamomile tea (her treat) and listened to Sayaka as she spilled her guts. Sayaka told her the truth about the great pizza debacle that happened weeks earlier, and the more recent pizza incident that took place last week. She told her about how she volunteered to make this pizza only because she felt strangely defensive over Kyoko. She told her about how she over-thought every kind gesture Kyoko made towards her, wondering if they could have some sort of deeper meaning. She told her about how she got angry when attractive boys payed Kyoko a _little_ too much attention. She told her about how she used to feel apathetic when Kyoko called her by the pet name Saya-chan, and how it now gave lifted her spirits each time Kyoko spoke it. She told Mami Tomoe _everything, _and Mami offered Sayaka her utmost attention the entire time. The remaining chamomile tea was cold by the time Sayaka finished her spiel.

"So, Mami-chan, what do you think?"

Mami reached for her cup and took one long, cold sip of her chamomile tea before answering. It seemed like ages before she responded, but Sayaka nervously awaited her prophetic wisdom the entire time.

"Well firstly, let me set your more prescient concerns at ease. My parents used to swear that a family friend had the absolute _best_ pizza recipe they had ever tasted. This family friend was a middle aged italian woman, and apparently the recipe was passed down through three generations to her. I never got to try it, but I know exactly where to locate that pizza recipe. I'll send you an email with it tonight for you to look over. I'll even study it backwards and forward myself. That way if you need any help whatsoever tomorrow, I'll be there to help you out. Alright?"

The amount of relief Sayaka felt was impossible to put into words. The fear of letting Kyoko down was almost too much to bear, but knowing that she had a magnificent recipe to follow and a good friend to help her prepare it lifted a huge burden from her shoulders. Her worries tomorrow would _not_ be about failure.

"Now as for Kyoko... I know for a fact that she cares about you in the same way. She's just too tough to show it. You can see it in that exact moment her features become less rough and jaded when you call her "Kyo-chan". She feels the same way about you, I can almost assure it. All you have to do is let her know, Sayaka-chan."

"...Yeah," Sayaka mused "Yeah, you're right! I just have to tell her! Mami-chan, you're the best!"

With that, she was suddenly thrust back into the present. She heard the sounds of a bustling supermarket again. People around her filled their baskets with bread and vegetables and other goods. The only thing that seemed to change since she entered her brief flashback-like trance was Kyoko. The frown she wore on her face was gone, and her features were more smooth. Her face conveyed a sense of...Was it _longing_ that Sayaka saw? Kyoko's eyes had widened and her mouth was slightly open, making the minty smell of her chewing gum grace the air between them. Kyoko was the one who finally broke the silence. Sayaka expected that the soft look she saw on Kyoko's face would dissipate just as quickly as it appeared as it usually had, but it remained as she spoke those next words.

"What? 'Kyo-chan, I think,' what?" she asked, voice quivering."What do you think, Saya-chan? What are you trying to say?"

Sayaka's heart thumped. She remembered the confidence she felt after her heart-to-heart with Mami the day before. She remembered poring over that recipe, committing as much to it as memory as she could. She remembered waking up this morning with her heart aflutter, knowing that today would be the day _she finally told her._

"Kyo-chan, I think..."

She looked back up into those eyes of Kyoko. The softness there that she only ever briefly saw was still there, and that was the scariest part.

"Kyoko-chan, I think I left my wallet in the car! Let me go grab that real quick, sorry!"

Sayaka left Kyoko with the shopping cart and ran out into the parking lot towards the car, but she and Kyoko both knew that Sayaka never left the apartment without her wallet.

(Thanks for reading! As always reviews and criticism are always appreciated! I also like writing prompts for people, so PM me if interested! Finally the link to my tumblr is on my profile, so follow me there so we can talk and gush about everything! ^^)


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